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Thursday, 29 October 2009

Attack the Block update!

If it's in Empire, then it must be true. I thought production was farther down the line than this but I'm not complaining. I happen to be free in February if they need me!

It’s been circling for a while, but today it was finally confirmed that Attack The Block, the sci-fi comedy that will mark the directorial debut of the taller half of Adam & Joe, Joe Cornish, will start filming in February. Edited to add that Joe also confirms this during his Arts Attack interview at The Roundhouse which was recorded a week earlier.

The story of a gang of Sarf London teenagers who are forced to defend their tower block from alien invasion, Attack The Block will see the culmination of Cornish’s increased involvement in the movie world.

Lately, for example, he’s co-written, with Edgar Wright, the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Black Unicorn, and is still working on the script for Wright and Marvel’s Ant-Man. Attack The Block, though, is a solo screenplay from the man who once narrated Empire’s short-lived TV show, Orange & Empire At The Movies.

Word on Cornish’s screenplay has been stellar for a while now, and we’re already looking forward to this one. The film will be a co-production between Big Talk and Optimum Releasing, with Nira Park and James Wilson producing. Edgar Wright is one of the film’s executive producers, along with Matthew Justice, Tessa Ross, Will Clarke and Jenny Borgars.

“Attack The Block is one of the most inventive and entertaining scripts we have ever read and a great project to kick off the relationship [with Big Talk],” said Will Clarke, CEO of Optimum Releasing. “We look forward to seeing the film come alive and thrilling audiences around the world."

Love the way they are using Joe's gorgeous bed-head picture.

Optimum Releasing is good news. They've gone from strength to strength over the last few years. I bloody love some of their choices. They've got a nice little trailers channel on YouTube and that.Will it be too much to hope that we might get some Paul/Scott Pilgrim stylie production treats thrown at our stupid, eager, net-gazing faces?

The first film out of the deal will be Joe Cornish’s directorial debut Attack The Block, which will be launched at the next week’s American Film Market. Developed by Big Talk, and backed by Film 4 and UK Film Council, Attack the Block is about a gang of South London teenagers defending their tower block against an alien attack.

The first project to come out of the Big Talk-Optimum deal will be Joe Cornish's "Attack the Block," about a gang of South London teenagers defending their tower block against an alien attack. Cornish's screenplay was the subject of keen interest in the U.K. film industry earlier this summer with studio interest in acquiring the project before Optimum topper Will Clarke prevailed.

THR has it covered too but it's all the same press statement waffle really.

Joe Cornish's directorial debut "Attack The Block," which will debut to buyers at next week's American Film Market via Studio Canal's sales arm, will be first out of the new look pact between the three.

What a delicious luxury for a British film with a debut feature director going in front of the cameras with distribution deals potentially in place.

Big ol' hearts going out to Cornballs.

This blogger has brought together all the little nibbles we've been sampling over the months. At first glance, the only omission is the lovely Robin Cooper AudioBoo and the little podcast reference to when Joe was storyboarding in August.

An attractive young woman walks home through dark, dangerous streets in south London. She falls into an ambush. Five ghoulish, hooded youths surround her— they take her mobile, her purse, her engagement ring, but they want more. Just then, a fireball explodes out of the sky and destroys a nearby parked car.

From the wreckage emerges a vicious little alien that the youths hunt down, kill and triumphantly parade back to their block. But their adventure is not over. The night is still young and the attack on the block has only just begun…

Surely, it can't be long before the IMDB entry edges out of "In Development" status so that the fan-buzz can begin.

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This began as a diversion inspired by Sally Grosart's wonderful Paper People and the sense of loss from Adam and Joe's radio show not being on air all through summer 2009. They have since taken a much longer break and I seem to have kept pottering about here.

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